Besides boosting existing FMCG brands in the upcoming season, Harsha Vardhan has the mandate to grow the group’s pharmacy retail venture.
For the Rs.30 billion Emami Group, the biggest marketing challenges have been the changing times in the Indian FMCG market and the conventional opinion on family run enterprises. Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, who is one of the key pillars behind the company’s meteoric rise in the recent past, has managed these challenges deftly. He’s the youngest Director at the Emami group & has led the creation of successful brands like Boroplus and Navratna, which together contribute 50% of the company’s FMCG turnover.
Harsha believes that to survive in the FMCG world, constant localisation is necessary and so are brand extensions. This year itself, Emami did 3 brand extensions. Harsha is now planning a major extension under the ‘Fair & Handsome’ brand by the end of 2011. For the upcoming season, Harsha is trying to connect all his FMCG brands with movies (like Zandu Balm with the movie Force). Emami’s gameplan involves at least 8 new launches, product repackaging and taking each brand two new states every year. Last year, the group entered the retail rodeo with pharmacy retailing under the name of Frank Ross Ltd. When we ask him whether the retail venture would go pan-India, Harsha comments, “Emami is India’s fastest growing FMCG company and that’s because we have always adopted multiple distribution channels depending upon the product. And I feel for our retail venture also, the same is applicable.” On the family front, Harsha is even ensuring that the next generation is well aware about the brands. He trailed his fathers footsteps at the age of 13 by entering the business. And today, his 4-year-old son is made to use brands like Emami’s ‘Thanda Thanda Cool Cool’ powder! Take that for unquestionable passion!
Emami’s second generation has taken up the cause of converting Emami into a conglomerate, but Harsha asserts that it will not shift their core focus from FMCG. The group targets a yoy growth of 30% in revenue by 2012. The plethora of files, telephones & hand-phones and the absence of personal or family photographs on his desk reveal a lot about Harsha professionally. Ask him how he manages diverse imperatives and he replies with a smile, “We, the directors, don’t work individually. We work with the team, which creates a force strong enough to manage the group.” Harsha, who ensures regular correspondence with all family members (including the Goenka brothers), feels that his generation has brought in lots of dynamism through professional management and this is fuelling the drive to make Emami big outside the domestic, and the FMCG boundary. Clearly, this marketing maverick is gearing up for interesting times ahead!
For the Rs.30 billion Emami Group, the biggest marketing challenges have been the changing times in the Indian FMCG market and the conventional opinion on family run enterprises. Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, who is one of the key pillars behind the company’s meteoric rise in the recent past, has managed these challenges deftly. He’s the youngest Director at the Emami group & has led the creation of successful brands like Boroplus and Navratna, which together contribute 50% of the company’s FMCG turnover.
Harsha believes that to survive in the FMCG world, constant localisation is necessary and so are brand extensions. This year itself, Emami did 3 brand extensions. Harsha is now planning a major extension under the ‘Fair & Handsome’ brand by the end of 2011. For the upcoming season, Harsha is trying to connect all his FMCG brands with movies (like Zandu Balm with the movie Force). Emami’s gameplan involves at least 8 new launches, product repackaging and taking each brand two new states every year. Last year, the group entered the retail rodeo with pharmacy retailing under the name of Frank Ross Ltd. When we ask him whether the retail venture would go pan-India, Harsha comments, “Emami is India’s fastest growing FMCG company and that’s because we have always adopted multiple distribution channels depending upon the product. And I feel for our retail venture also, the same is applicable.” On the family front, Harsha is even ensuring that the next generation is well aware about the brands. He trailed his fathers footsteps at the age of 13 by entering the business. And today, his 4-year-old son is made to use brands like Emami’s ‘Thanda Thanda Cool Cool’ powder! Take that for unquestionable passion!
Emami’s second generation has taken up the cause of converting Emami into a conglomerate, but Harsha asserts that it will not shift their core focus from FMCG. The group targets a yoy growth of 30% in revenue by 2012. The plethora of files, telephones & hand-phones and the absence of personal or family photographs on his desk reveal a lot about Harsha professionally. Ask him how he manages diverse imperatives and he replies with a smile, “We, the directors, don’t work individually. We work with the team, which creates a force strong enough to manage the group.” Harsha, who ensures regular correspondence with all family members (including the Goenka brothers), feels that his generation has brought in lots of dynamism through professional management and this is fuelling the drive to make Emami big outside the domestic, and the FMCG boundary. Clearly, this marketing maverick is gearing up for interesting times ahead!
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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